Golf | Memorial Tournament: Sorenstam's Columbus ties run deep

No one knew it at the time, but Annika Sorenstam served notice of her future on a Columbus golf course 23 years ago.

Bob Baptist, The Columbus Dispatch

No one knew it at the time, but Annika Sorenstam served notice of her future on a Columbus golf course 23 years ago.

It was in 1991 that she was medalist in the NCAA women’s golf championship at Ohio State’s Scarlet Course. She had left her native Sweden for the University of Arizona less than a year earlier and was the first freshman to win the NCAA women’s title.

“I was still in my diapers,” she joked.

Sorenstam, 43, was back in town yesterday to start the buildup toward the 2014 Memorial Tournament, at which she will be honored for all she did in golf between that victory at Scarlet and her premature retirement in 2008. She is married now and the mother of two young children.

“If she wanted to, she could still be playing and winning today,” said Jack Nicklaus, the Memorial Tournament founder and host. He joined Sorenstam at the Ohio Union as featured guests of the Legends Luncheon, a 4-year-old fundraiser for Nationwide Children’s Hospital that, with $800,000 in proceeds yesterday, has generated $1.9 million for pediatric cancer research.

The Nicklaus Youth Spirit Award, given annually to a pediatric cancer patient or family, went to Griffin Hayden, a 14-year-old from Newark who in March was diagnosed with leukemia for the second time in little more than a year. He could not attend the luncheon because of chemotherapy.

“If there is any kid who wishes he could be somewhere else today, that kid is Griffin,” said his father, Mark. “I’m sure he can be here next year.”

Sorenstam will be by far the youngest honoree in the 39-year history of the Memorial Tournament.

Former LPGA commissioner Charlie Mechem, a member of the tournament’s Captains Club that selects the honoree each year, told Sorenstam two years ago that she was too young for the honor but “you will get it one day,” she recalled him saying.

“When I got the call last year, I said, ‘OK, I guess I’m old.’?”

Sorenstam packed a lot into a 15-year professional career, winning 72 times on the women’s tour, including 10 major championships, and being named player of the year eight times. Included among her victories was the first Wendy’s Championship for Children in 1999 at the New Albany Country Club.

In 1998, she was a member of the European team that lost to the United States in the Solheim Cup matches at Muirfield Village Golf Club, the home of the Memorial since its inception in 1976. She remembered the teams staying in villas along the first hole and not leaving the property all week.

“It was first-class,” Sorenstam said. “We hadn’t had the opportunity to play in places that beautiful. We’d been to places that were nice, but this had it all — a gym, everything — and obviously it was Mr. Nicklaus’ place. The course was in incredible shape, it was great the way they set it up, and I loved the driving range and the practice facility.”

She is looking forward to returning with her family, including father-in-law Jerry McGee, a former PGA Tour player from New Lexington, Ohio, whom she said will present her for induction. McGee tied for fourth in the first Memorial in 1976 and played in the tournament six times.

“I’m going to make it a family event,” Sorenstam said. “We’re really looking forward to it.”

bbaptist@dispatch.com

@DispatchGolf

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